Little Egypt’s Speakeasy

Sing me a story

This is a fabulous show! Six musicians, three singers, an MC, two burlesque dancers and a sleazy club proprietor sing, dance and tell us a story about legendary Little Egypt’s Speakeasy, a nightclub in Phoenix Arizona in, well, since the music ranges from the late forties to the early sixties, I guess the mid-sixties.

The artists and the songs are carefully selected to give the audience some samples of the quality and diversity of American music of this period. Opening with Professor Longhair’s Bald Head sets the scene for the energy that fills this show. We hear songs like CC Rider, I’m Walkin’, If You Need Me, Lil’ Egypt, Night and Day and Land of 1000 Dances, which all started with black artists such as Fats Domino, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett, then were later covered by white artists such as Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones and the Animals. So this is a mini chronology of music of this period set in the narrative structure of the story of the collapse of the Little Egypt Speakeasy. The tall and lanky MC, Amos Elroy, narrates this tale in the metre of Tom Waits, and introduces the singers, the songs and the dancers - because many of the songs are invigorated by one of the exotic and erotic burlesque dancers. And true to the period depicted, Danica Lee looks just like Betty Page!

This isn’t just a music show, it’s a performance. The tale is punctuated by the rush of ‘the proprietor’ of the club, who talks of closing it down and selling it off because this style of music is no longer popular. At one point he cuts the lights mid performance and the artists have to talk him into giving them just a little longer to win over the audience to the show.

The mastermind of this amazing journey is Lucian McGuiness, who has not only created excellent theatre with music, but also manages the get the entire audience on their feet for Pickett’s Land of 1000 Dances, then shows us the moves for ‘The Fish, ‘The Watusi’, ‘The Twist’ and more, so we can all dance in unison. He creates his chorus-line out of his audience!

All the members of this clever team appear in other groups and venues, but McGuiness bringing them together at Camelot is a stroke of genius. I heard that some of this team appeared in the Spiegel Tent at Sydney Festival a couple of years ago and they may pop up again at the Adelaide Festival early next year. They certainly deserve to reprise this show again and again. I’ll go…

Stephen Carnell

Photographer: Frank Farrugia.